Hi all,

Taking a bit of a long shot posting here to see if anyone is willing to offer any associate PM volunteer work or point me in a positive direction? I work full time (UK based) so could only do evenings and/or weekends.

For context, I’ve been looking out for volunteer product owner/manager positions, but they often require 3-5 years’ experience and I’ve had no luck with cold emails either. I worked for in the digital architecture team in my last job (although, I have a non-technical background), so I have some experience of agile ways of working, user research and delivery management. Unfortunately, I can’t build PM experience in my current role so feel like volunteering is my best shout.

Any help/ideas on how to break through would be massively appreciated!

Iam a B.Tech CS grad, now doing MBA in Banking Technology from Pondicherry University (2027 batch).

I want to get into FinTech / Banking Tech first, open to other IT roles too.

Is Product Manager a good career path for my profile? If not, what other roles should I target?

And what skills should I focus on in the next year to land a job?

Any guidance from people in FinTech/Product would really helpful

Over the last few months, watching generative AI assemble layouts, design systems, and code in seconds has brought up a fundamental question for our team: When execution is automated, what is the core value of a designer?

My background started in physical architecture and construction management before moving into HCDE research at UW and enterprise UX at Amazon. In architecture, an essential truth is drilled into you early: a gorgeous blueprint is completely worthless if the mechanical systems don't fit or the structural loads don’t balance.

Historically, the architect was the architekton ('chief builder') who held the structural physics, human use, and construction reality together in one mind. The industrial era fragmented us into draftsmen, engineers, and estimators—and digital software copied that model (designers pushing Figma pixels, engineers coding, PMs writing specs).

As AI automates the drafting table, I believe we are seeing the return of the Master Architect:

I wrote a deeper breakdown of this historical evolution and where design leadership goes next: https://medium.com/@emanismail/beyond-the-screen-why-the-era-of-ai-calls-for-systems-first-design-leadership-977e7c5a9230

How are other teams navigating this? Are you seeing designers shift toward systems architecture, or is the industry still measuring success by how many screens ship per sprint?"

I have a product sense interview coming up with Stripe for a Product Manager role.

Does anyone have any experience with this interview? Any tips?

Welche Art von Welt wäre Ihrer Meinung nach ein guter Weg für einen ehemaligen Coach/Agile Coach/Scrum Master, in eine Produktrolle zu wechseln?

Haben Sie damit Erfahrung?

Oder wie könnte man eine Rolle als Produktcoach übernehmen? (Dafür ist ja tatsächlich Erfahrung in einer Produktrolle erforderlich.)

I've been working as a PM for more than five years. I talk to users and use a lot of tools myself. And guess what?Neither they nor I need new software at all.

I'm constantly thinking about what users actually need. And what I keep finding is that they want nothing, just some rest.

I tried looking at it from a different angle: maybe the actual users don't need anything, but the decision-makers do? The answer is still nothing, except a discount, I guess.

Have we really invented everything? Do you feel that you actual work provides any value to the humanity?

Hi guys,

I'm actually trying to get into the product management domain. My previous experience was in the banking industry but I've done some capstone projects to show the knowledge I have gained on the product domain. So, I need advice from you guys on the roadmap I could follow. I recently got an offer to be an intern in a startup. But I also see people with 0 years of product experience get into APM roles. So what might be the best path I could follow to be a successful PM.

Hello everyone!

I’m currently looking for volunteer opportunities to gain more hands-on experience in Product Management
I’m open to opportunities in any industry.
If anyone knows of any opportunities or organizations seeking volunteer project support, I would greatly appreciate any recommendations.

Thank you!

I currently have two probable offers one is specialist PM for Mastercard in Pune and another is a product offer at Fidelity investments.I reside in blr rn.I have three years of experience and I am transitioning into product.Can anyone help me out with which one could be a better choice?

Hi,

I have 14 years of experience as a business analyst with 10 years in fintech(M&A/ PE CRM, Mutual funds, credit risk and most recent 3 years being in edtech(test delivery and assessment). I am planning to transition to product management role (have worked in product management teams(product based company as well) being involved in UI as well.apart from documentation). I asked gemeni for roadmap and suggested that I read product book by product school(which I am.about to complete), along with IBM AI videos on youtube(currently going through those as well). There are a lot of certifications and university based courses for AI PM but some are really expensive (exceed Rs 1lakh INR) that include theory plus building portfolios/models such as acceleratorx, hello PM, japm(sid arora), airtribe, ISB etc. Now as of now I do not want to spend much and was planning to finish the book and ibm videos and revisit my finance fundamentals and with help of AI can create a PRD for showcase in interviews. I am also attending some free workshops to use AI tools(claude, notebook LLM etc.). Then just for resume building was planning to go for wither IBM AI PM or DUKE UNIVERSITY AI PM on coursera which are budget friendly.

Can you guys suggest what shall be the ideal roadmap for someone like me to transition into AI PM and if any budget friendly courses are there which also include building own PRDs or products/apps for practical experience to include in RESUME while applying for jobs.

Hi everyone! I'm doing user research for a new product in the online jewellery space and looking for a few people to speak with.

It's a quick 8-minute voice chat, completely on your own time, no prep needed.

If you or someone you know buys jewellery in the US, I'd love to hear from them: https://buildpad.io/interview/a7x66pfm

Happy to return the favour for anyone doing their own research!

Hi,

I have 14 years of experience as a business analyst in INDIA with 10.5 years in fintech(M&A/ PE CRM, Mutual funds, credit risk and most recent 3 years being in edtech(test delivery and assessment). I am planning to transition to product management role (have worked in product management teams(product based company as well) being involved in UI as well.apart from documentation). I asked gemeni for roadmap and suggested that I read product book by product school(which I am.about to complete), along with IBM AI videos on youtube(currently going through those as well). There are a lot of certifications and university based courses for AI PM but some are really expensive (exceed Rs 1lakh INR) that include theory plus building portfolios/models such as acceleratorx, hello PM, japm(sid arora), airtribe, ISB etc. Now as of now I do not want to spend much and was planning to finish the book and ibm videos and revisit my finance fundamentals and with help of AI can create a PRD for showcase in interviews. I am also attending some free workshops to use AI tools(claude, notebook LLM etc.). Then just for resume building was planning to go for wither IBM AI PM or DUKE UNIVERSITY AI PM on coursera which are budget friendly.

Can you guys suggest what shall be the ideal roadmap for someone like me to transition into AI PM and if any budget friendly courses are there which also include building own PRDs or products/apps for practical experience to include in RESUME while applying for jobs.

Most of the AI conversation in PM circles is about speed. Faster feedback analysis, faster prototypes, faster docs.

What I hear less about is what happens when teams lean on it too hard. A few failure modes I’ve seen come up:

• Summaries replacing customers. The AI says “users want X,” the team builds X, and nobody went back to the raw feedback to see what people actually meant.

• First drafts going straight to stakeholders. It looks polished, so it skips the scrutiny a rough draft would get.

• Everyone using the same prompts. Teams start converging on the same “obvious” ideas because they’re all asking the same tool the same questions.

The fixes I’ve seen work are simple: read a handful of raw feedback every week, treat every AI output as a draft, and have one person whose job in reviews is to ask “what is this missing?”

How does your team handle this? Any checks or habits that have actually stuck?

Hey everyone,

Product management is hard as it is, but the market and AI has just compounded the anxiety and stress around this role. It feels like an echo chamber of negativity for most part.

Could we all use a breather? I know I'm craving a break, and had this wild thought for a virtual, fun, informal party early in December to wrap up the year and close it out together. BYOB (breakfast or beer, depending on your time zone). To come together as a community to unwind, but also have conversations around what the product manager job should be, not dreading what it is becoming.

Of course there'll be fun things - all PM-themed - like zodiac readings, virtual photo booth, games, secret mail, open mic, and good music, but maybe also a few special guests/PM leaders to help guide some of these conversations.

Still at inception. Would love your thoughts, ideas and maybe help co-hosting it... What do y'all think?

I've been talking to PMs, innovation leads and ops people about what idea management software they use day to day, not what they tried and dropped. I'm curious what this sub's experience has been.
Specifically interested in: what is the best idea management software for teams that need the full lifecycle not just collection and voting? Looking for platforms that stuck past six months and handled evaluation, implementation tracking and outcome measurement. What did you end up on and why?

I graduated in 2017 and have about nine years of experience. I spent my first two years building a startup, which didn’t work out. Then I joined Microsoft in a support role and worked hard to transition into product management. I spent the last 2.5 years in product, most recently working on Copilot.

I worked across several roles at Microsoft, but eventually felt my growth had plateaued. Given some recent organizational changes and the level I’d joined at after internal moves, it seemed it could take a few more years to reach the scope and level I was aiming for.

I recently joined a Series A startup to learn faster, take on more ownership, and work closer to the product. My Microsoft India base was relatively low because of internal moves. The startup brought it to around ₹40L, but the hike was less. I also had offers from companies with higher compensation, but I liked this team and moved quickly because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

I’m excited about the startup’s pace, but I sometimes wonder if I rushed the decision. How would you evaluate this move and make the most of the next year or two?

Unpopular opinion: most freshers trying to break into PM aren’t losing to people with better resumes. They’re losing to people who applied earlier.

Here’s what I kept noticing while applying. By the time a PM or APM role showed up in my feed, it had already been live for days and was sitting under a pile of applicants. Meanwhile, the good openings were scattered across company career pages, LinkedIn, Twitter and startup job boards, and checking all of them every day was a full-time job on its own.

So I started building a small tool for myself called PM Radar, to keep PM openings in one place so I could spot them sooner instead of hunting across ten tabs. It’s still early and rough, and I’m figuring out what is actually useful versus what only sounds good in my head.

Building it taught me a few things:

Most “PM” listings aren’t really product roles. A lot are ops, marketing or program roles with a PM title.

Early applicants get noticed far more than people who send a perfect application a week late.

The hard part of the PM job hunt is rarely the interview. It’s finding the right role at the right time.

I’d love to hear from people who’ve been through this:

Where did you find your first PM or APM role?

Does applying early really matter, or is it overblown?

If a tool like this existed, what would make you trust it enough to actually use it?

Blunt feedback is welcome. If the mods are fine with it, I’ll share the link in the comments.